Envelope or wrapper



(No Model.)

' T. J. ODONNELL.

ENVELOPE OR WRAPPER.

No. 487,581. Patented Dec. 6, 1892.

- UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

TIMOTHY J. ODONNELL, OF LAWRENCE, MASSACHUSETTS.

ENVELOPE OR WRAPPER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 487,581, dated December6, 1892.

Application filed December 22, 1891. Serial No. 415,852. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, IMOTHY J. ODoN- NELL, of Lawrence, in the county ofEssex and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and ImprovedEnvelope or Wrapper, of which the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription.

My invention relates to improvements in the construction ofletter-envelopes or wrappers such as are used for holding newspapers orother packages.

The object of-my invention is to produce a simple envelope or wrapperwhich may be cheaply made and which provides for the easy opening ofsaid envelope or wrapper without any possible injury to the contents.

A further object of my invention is to reinforce the gummed portion ofthe envelope or wrapper flap, so that the envelope or wrapper Willbevery strong, and this reinforcement in the case of wrappers is oftenespecially valuable from the fact that the body of the wrapper is madeof cheap thin material, which easily breaks at the pointgummed.

Another object of my invention is to construct the flap of the envelopeor wrapper so that it may be easily grasped and torn open by the thumband finger.

With these ends in view myinvention consists of an envelope or wrapperthe construction of which will. be hereinafter described and claimed.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part ofthis specification, in which similar figures of reference indicatecorresponding parts in all the views.

Figure 1 is an inverted plan of the envelope, showing the blank of theflap. Fig. 2 is a broken inverted plan of the envelope with the flapopen and formed in accordance with my invention. Fig. 3 is a brokenperspective view of a wrapper having the flap made in accordance with myinvention. Fig. 4 is a cross-section on the line 4 4 in Fig. 2, and Fig.5 is a detail plan view of a reinforcingstrip which is adapted to beapplied to envelopes or wrappers of very thin material.

The envelope 10 may be of the usual form, and it has the usual flap 11,except that the latter is provided with extension-flaps 12 at its outeredge, which flaps are separated near the center of the blank of theenvelope-flap,

as shown in Fig. 1, so that they may be readily doubled over, as in Fig.2 and as indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 1, to form adouble thicknessnear the edge of the flap, and thus give it great strength. Theseextension-flaps 12 may be of any desired width, and they are gummed onthe surface which comes next If desired, the extension-flap may be in asingle piece 12 as shown in Fig. 5,- which piece may have the tip orhandle 13, as described above, and may be stuck or otherwise secured tothe flap of an envelope or wrapper, thus reinforcing the same andadapting it to be stuck in the ordinary way.

The above description applies to an envelope; but it will be understoodthat it may apply to a Wrapper as well, as the wrappers are exactly likethe envelopes, except that their ends are open.

There the envelopes or wrappers are made of very thin material, thereinforcing-strip 12 may be made of material of a better quality, and itwill thus be seen that a cheap envelope or wrapper may be made whichwill hold its contents as Well asif it were composed of a more expensivematerial.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patent As an improved article of manufacture, an envelope orwrapper having its fastening-flap provided with reinforcing or extensionflaps adapted to be doubled over the fasteningflap and overlapped attheir adjacent ends, said extension-flaps havinggummed surfaces, and agumless surface at the point 13, substantially as described.

TIMOTHY J. ODONNELL.

Witnesses:

EDWARD J. MATTHEWS, JOHN R. ODONNELL.

